The appraiser had had to contact the office head, who was a tier 4 appraiser, to find out what the status of the sword was. He had rushed out of his office when he had found out what he was dealing with, which meant I wouldn't have to wait long to finally get answers. The head appraiser was a round-bellied man with a thin moustache. He marched into his subordinate's office to come to inspect the sword, not even introducing himself in the process. I didn't think he had done it out of a feeling of superiority, though. He just looked excited to inspect the weapon. I guessed that curiosity was necessary to become an appraiser in the first place.

He took a large looking-glass out of his pocket and brought his face within an inch of the sword.

A moment later he squealed in glee like a pig. The tier three appraiser made an apologetic gesture in my direction with an embarrassed look on his face. I supposed the office head's excitability was nothing new, because he looked like he had had to deal with this exact situation before.

After a few seconds, the excitable appraiser turned to me, this time with a grim look on his face. The sudden change caught me a little by surprise.
"Where did you get this sword, customer?"

I almost didn't want to reply to his sudden interrogation, but I supposed I should have expected this item to give me more trouble than it's worth.

"I got it off of a corpse I found on my latest quest. I can't tell you more. Ask the guild master."

He turned pensive at that. "I see. Very well. Here is its status. Due to the circumstances, I recommend that you don't sell it, despite the fact that you would be legally in your right to do so."

Now my curiosity was really piqued. The blue screen appeared for me to read.

 

"Oh, wow."

The office leader twirled his moustache and looked at me intently.

"Do you understand the amount of trouble this sword can bring you now? A knight's sword without its knight can only mean that one of the Duke's loyal followers died. I recommend you let the guild return this to him."

 

My first instinct was to agree, but then a sneaky plan hatched in my head.

"No. I'll bring this to Duke Rass myself. I was the one to bury his knight and the one to avenge him, I shall return this weapon as well."

I said it in a self-righteous tone, but really I just wanted the Duke's favour. Normally I wasn't one to scheme like this, but with my class I needed to curry all of the favour with the kingdom's powerhouses I could. If I got enough support I would eventually be able to reveal my class to the world and walk around without fear! That was a future prospect that I just didn't want to miss out on.

The tier 3 appraiser gave me a knowing smile, while his boss started pacing back and forth, before replying.

"Very well. You can escort this to him, but I will be notifying the guild leader of this situation! He will most likely send a guard contingent with you. The guild losing this sword could have immense repercussions. We just can't entrust it to a lone tier 2 or tier 3, whatever the case may be."

I nodded in response. I would have preferred to go alone, but I didn't think there was any way to do so safely. This opportunity was too valuable to me and the guild. I could technically also just keep the sword, but with my low stats I wouldn't get good use out of it, not to mention it wasn't dark-aligned, which was a deal-breaker for me. Returning it to the Duke would, bar any unwelcome surprises, be the safest and most beneficial option.

With our discussion done, the office head returned to his own study, allowing me to get back to business with the tier 3 appraiser.

 

"So, you wish to sell both hammer and the cauldron, yes? Based on my estimates, they will roughly sell for a combined total of 82 gold coins or 8200 silver. The appraisal cost for this entire session is 5% for both items being sold and 3% for the pouch. That means you owe us 575 silver. You can either pay us now, or we can take the sum total out of the monetary compensation for your items when they sell."

"Taking it out of the monetary compensation is fine, thanks. When will the items be sold?"

"They should be sold within the next few days, if the clients I have in mind agree. Come back in three days and we'll have your money ready."

With that done, I said my goodbyes to the appraiser and the attendant. If the items sold well, my growing fortune would rise above 100 gold or 1 platinum. To put that into perspective, my parents made about 10 gold per year from their bakery, which was rather successful.

The sword of Duke Rass' knight was the most valuable of all. It would be dangerous to keep if people found out about it though. I would keep it stored away in my spatial pouch until I could return it. It also wasn't a terrible idea not to leave the guild alone for the next few days.

As I passed by the front gates, I saw the tall clock tower that was present in Reito's skyline. I hadn't paid much attention to it until now, but it was a good way to tell the time. I couldn't really read a clock, I hadn't needed to until now, but Doran had assured me that I needed to pick up Michael at the orphanage when the large arrow pointed straight down. It was starting to approach that point, so I decided now was as good a time as any to head out. That being said, leaving Duke Rass' sword in the guild might be a good idea.

I hid my spatial pouch under my bed, confident nobody would find it there. They didn't even know I had anything to steal and the guild was more secure than most banks, what with all the guards. I grabbed about a hundred silver just in case and put it into a mundane pouch, attaching it to my belt a moment later. Now that I was prepared, I could walk through the city without worry.

 

---

 

Taking a closer look at Reito, it was a beautiful city. I had noticed a while ago that most people living here had the coin to do so comfortably. High townhouses and small manors could be seen everywhere. It was a veritable paradise for the wealthy.

That left me wondering about the people that were less well-off though. I hadn't found any houses outside of the city's walls. Did they have a 'slum' like my father had once described? Apparently, big cities kept their poorer populace in other districts. I didn't really understand why though. We were all just people in the end, weren't we? Did their pride force the richer to separate themselves from the poor? It was a hard-to-grasp concept for me. Maybe I would understand in the future.

There were no 'slums' on the way to the orphanage, though the occasional back-alley thug could be seen in darker corners of the city. I mostly just ignored them. Starting a fight in the middle of a city would be bad news for me, but no longer impossible to deal with. If I used my [Dark Form] properly, nobody would be able to tell I was using dark-aligned skills. I wouldn't even need to use my core to fight now, since I always had dark form topped up. The convenience of tier 5 skills really couldn't be understated.

As I passed through some cobbled neighbourhoods, I could see the roof of Michael's new orphanage come into view. It was an old building that still had some of that older architecture. These days most buildings had more decoration adorning their walls. My parents claimed that in the past most buildings were soberer in their decorations. Similar to the current witch hunter fortress, I supposed. Simple, yet effective.

I was approaching the orphanage's front door when a little brown-haired kid flew out like a magic bolt. Michael had seen me arrive through one of the windows. He ran up to me with his arms spread. I leaned down to give him a hug. It felt a little foreign, but not in a bad way. The kid was slightly warm from running around.

"How did your day go, Michael? Did you have fun?"

He nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! The caretaker and the teachers told me all kinds of cool stuff! The magic teacher even said I'm very knoledgel!"

"You mean 'knowledgeable'?"

"Yeah, that one!"

 

The kid and I conversed a little more while we walked back to the guild. I showed him some cool buildings around the city that I had come across on my own walk. Michael didn't know how to read clocks either, so I taught him the same trick Doran had taught me. That way he would know when I would come by to pick him up.

Sadly, our walk was interrupted by three scarred thugs blocking our path on a small road. They held out some knives.

"Alright, black-hair! Give me that money pouch o' yours! If you don't, we'll just kill yous and the kid."

Oh great. These thugs instantly justified whatever violence I was about to use to shut them up.

Right as I was about to jump forward to knock them out, Michael grabbed onto my leg from behind, trying to hide. I reassured him by putting my hand on the back of his head, drawing my sword with the other one.

"Let's test whether three on one is enough to even the odds, shall we?"

 

The thugs wasted no time and rushed at me.

 

---

 

Turns out, three on one wasn't enough to even the odds. I had defeated the first with a thrust, which he couldn't block because of his low stats. The second had been knocked out due to a pommel strike and the third had simply run away when he realised the battle had been lost. They were probably all tier 1, considering how weak they were. Against helpless villagers and city folk they might have had more success, but a witch hunter? Morons.

I had called the guards to pick up the two knocked out bandits and told them about the third that had run away. They didn't hesitate to arrest the two, though a part of me couldn't help but wonder why the guards didn't have a more active presence in the poorer districts, which would prevent accidents like this from happening in the first place.

Michael had recovered from his fright on the way back to the guild and even started laughing about the whole thing. I expected even that was just a way to cope with his recent shocks, but I couldn't help him further. I could only hope that he would be able to give this event, and the one that had happened in the forest a few days ago a place in his mind. His fire affinity made him brash and passionate. I was sure he would recover eventually.

I dropped Michael off at my room and recovered my spatial pouch which was thankfully still there. I gave the kid some of his magic books to keep him busy and left for the guild's common room.

 

I hadn't made use of this room before because of my strict training schedule, but now that I had undergone the worst of it, I had some time to socialise with the other guild members. When I entered the tavern-like room, I noticed the guards that I had met when I first entered the guild. They waved me over, so I happily sat down next to them. I called out to the barkeep for a beer, which was brought to me by a waitress. The middle-aged family man spoke up when I had settled down.

"And so the star-child joins us mortal men! We heard you completed your first mission and became an official member! Congratulations."

The table chuckled at his description of me. I couldn't help but join in.

"Well yeah, the mission went great, thanks. What's with the title though? I can't be the only kid to have joined the guild, right?"

He laughed for a moment. "Well, when you've got a tier 4 as your instructor and make daily visits to the guild master, people start talking, you know. Word around is that you have a rare class that the leader wants to use to put our guild back on the map in Reito. Any truth to that?"

I smiled nervously. Had people really been paying attention to me? Maybe I was in slightly over my head...

"Well, I can't say if there is. I'd certainly like to think I got a lucky awakening, but hey, doesn't everybody?"

One of the older men leaned over the table and whispered.

"Not everybody. My neighbour's daughter got a prostitute class when she awakened!"

One of the other guys roared with laughter.

"That just means the system gave her what she was doing already, fool!"

The table laughed even harder, though I kept silent. I didn't really think it was a fair thing to say, when you couldn't choose your circumstances, or your class. Apparently, the waitress wasn't happy with their crass comments either, because the large woman took a wooden plate filled with slop and slammed it into his face.

"Keep your dirty talk outside of my tavern! It's not your place to talk about others behind their back! Poor girl..."

The tavern laughed at the man's plight, especially because he had deserved it. I stood up and headed back to my room. Their talk had left me feeling a little awkward. Garrett and his party were certainly easier to get along with.

At least I had something fun to look forward to tomorrow, since I would be checking out the tier 2 form of Revan.